By Amgbare Ekaunkumo, Yenagoa
The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), has trained additional 1500 ex-agitators for single-digit interest loans offered by the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultral Lending (NIRSAL).
The training, which took place at designated centres in Delta, Rivers, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom was in continuation of a programme for NIRSAL loans which PAP commenced November last year.
The initiative was part of efforts of PAP to raise the economic prospects of people of the Niger Delta region by attracting financial support for small and medium scale enterprises.
Speaking at the training programme in Uyo, Akwa Ibom the Interim Administrator, PAP, Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd), said the focus was to facilitate and enhance single digit interest loans for entrepreneurs in the region.
Dikio, who was represented by the Head of Reintegration, Mr. Alfred Kemepade, said that the training would help the beneficiaries of the loan to grow their businesses and mitigate risks.
Dikio in a statement signed by his Special Adviser, Media, Neotaobase Egbe, admonished the beneficiaries to judiciously use the loans to become successful enterprenures, warning that diverting the facility would create more hardship for them and further plung the region into extreme poverty.
At the Yenagoa and Port Harcourt Centers, Dikio who spoke through his Special Adviser on Projects, Mr. Godwin Ekpo asked the beneficiaries to form cooperatives and focus on agriculture.
Dikio said: “The facilitators were very engaging and it just gives us hope and we are hopeful that once we are done with these set and we go into the next batches, the subsequent things we will do with these people will yield result.
“We have asked them to form themselves into cooperatives, look at the Agriculture value chain, production, processing, packaging and logistics end to see where they fit in.
“A lot of them have shown interest and I am hoping that maybe by tomorrow they will form themselves into different clusters in the value chain of several products.
“We are saying to everybody that cares to hear is that the Niger Delta is ready for development. Come back to the Niger Delta, come back and invest here. We are ready to receive you and we are ready to support you.”
A senior Reintegration Officer in PAP, Mr. Benjamin Appah, who stood in for Col. Dikio in Warri, explained how the beneficiaries were drawn across the region for the various centers.
He said: “The names were compiled across impacted communities, PAP success stories, PAP cooperatives and the documented bonafide beneficiaries of the Amnesty Programme. We received the names through their camp leaders, their cooperatives and the post training units.
“We also gathered from the success stories of people who have been previously empowered by the amnesty office and are doing well in their businesses.
“So the office of the Interim Administrator thought it wise to say that since they are doing well in their businesses, why don’t we help them expand.
“This loan is a scheme organized by the Federal government of Nigeria. However, PAP decided to bridge that gap and facilitate a training by engaging a consultant who will train beneficiaries and show them the prerequisite of accessing the loan and also guide them through getting a credible business plan.
“In a nutshell, the current PAP administration is trying to facilitate the access for the beneficiaries to benefit from the Federal Government’s single digit collateral free loan programme.
“All the beneficiaries has to do is come down to their training centers, receive their training, and the office is responsible for all the other expenses that qualify them.”
Some of the facilitators said that the training besides giving them access to funding and skills to promote their businesses would also make them good employers of labour.
Certificates of participation were issued to the beneficiaries across all centers at the end the five-day workshop.
The certificate qualified the beneficiaries for other Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), accredited loans, grants and credit facilities.
